Draft 1

Draft 2

Happy spring to all you Maine locals! Happy spring to everyone else, too. :)
So there is something I'm very excited to invite you to.

Several Intermedia MFA students,myself included , have teamed up with the Coaction Lab, and the Bangor Water District to bring the city of Bangor FLOW: an evening of water themed light and projection. This is all happening on Wednesday, May 4th (the day after tomorrow).

Here's the scoop.

This multi-media event takes place during the annual Spring Tour of the Thomas Hill Standpipe. Me and some of my colleagues are going to wrap the Thomas Hill Standpipe in a blanket of light and moving imagery inspired by the rich history and daily functions of this unique Bangor water infrastructure. The cool part is that the water tower is going to be open for tours. There will also be sound and music. It's going to be a super sensual experience.

This only happens a couple of times a year! And it's free.

Tours are going to start at 5:30pm and performance will being at 7:00pm. If you're local or going to be traveling through, please let me know and come by and say hello. I'd love to hear what you think about the performance and chat.

I’ve put together my favorite list of places to go for free or super affordable education and professional development. If I know I have a couple of weeks, or even months of downtime, I’ll sign up for a course, download workshop/course materials, or take a class while I’m traveling.

La Bohème is just over a month away and I'm absolutely loving working on it. Here is a little sneak peek of Act II's Café Momus.
For you Maine locals, the show is on April 24th at the Collins Center for the Arts in Orono. Get your tickets here.

If you haven’t heard it yet, you are bound to hear an artist say that they’ll never get into a relationship with another artist, musician, performer, or a personal as equally creative as them. I was once one of those artists. Having had my share of kindred spirit attractions go south and go up in flames, tears and regret - I have repeatedly vowed never to be in a relationship with another artist. They are too volatile, emotional, dramatic, unstable, and competitive. Name any artistic creative stereotype and I had encountered it. I'd been hurt and I blamed my failed relationships on our shared passions. These letdowns no doubt had a negative impact on my motivation, focus, and artist practice.

So for several years, I avoided relationships (and even friendships) with creative types. During this time, I purged my relationship bookshelf and began to realize that if I wanted to be a successful, prosperous, healthy, happy, artist I needed to conscientiously choose to surround myself with those types of people. It was during this time that I realized that creative personalities, no matter how dynamic, emotionally driven, or passionately artistic they were, had nothing to do with the quality of a person that I was engaging with. It's no surprise that these new friendships had a positive impact on my lifestyle and therefore practice.

My previous unhealthy relationship patterns had nothing to do with the fact that those people were artists or creative individuals. There were healthy creative souls in my social circles. I just wasn't paying them any mind because I had simply chosen to commit to individuals that were unhealthy, because I myself had some emotional baggage that I needed to work through.

I had some shit to work through. So what’s my point?

My point is, good people come in all personality types. If you’re an artist, you can have healthy intimate relationships with other artists that compliment your life and your practice. You can have friendships that support, and nurture the work that you do and the lifestyle that you’ve chosen. All artists are drug abusing alcoholics. Lie. Most of my artist friends don’t drink. Artists are hypersexual and promiscuous. False. The majority of my artist friends are in healthy committed relationships. Don’t fall for the belief that creative souls are damaged goods with nothing to contribute. And don’t fall for the lie that in order to be a successful creative, you have to live a life separated from other artists like a monk on a solitude binge.

What fun is that?!

It doesn't matter the level of creative awareness of the people in your tribe. What matters is that you have one- and that it’s healthy. If you have that, you will thrive, and so will your creative practice.

Winter seems to finally be breaking. Although, this is Maine, and we are still on the map for a late spring blizzard - knock on wood. Nonetheless, we've made it this far, and talks of it having been a mild winter are very common.

As previously hinted, I have some pretty exciting upcoming projects. I think that it's finally safe to make it known that I was commissioned by The Bangor Symphony Orchestra to do the video projected scenic work for their production of La Bohème.
What's that mean?

Well, the opera is several acts and instead of creating the scenes, as is done is most theatre productions, the orchestra has hired yours truly to paint the scenes that are to be projected during the performance.

I'll be posting pictures of the pieces as I progress, but if you'd like to follow it, check the Work In Progress out on my Behance, where you can see the formal progression and give me feedback!

Someone who I hold very dear to my heart recently lost someone very special to him. For those who you who have ever had your life touched by a horse, you can imagine how sad and heartbreaking it can be to say goodbye to them. However, all life passes on and we all have to learn to let go with grace and peace, despite the pain.
So, in memory of our dear friend Toby.

It's an ornament. Illustration was hand drawn, and vectorized for the laser cutter. I don't have any piece like this for sale online, yet. However, if you're interested in a custom piece, message me at Eleanor@seagoatstudio.com and we'll get you hooked up!